flaring sheets advertising whiskies, sauces, and theatrical ventures.
A huge picture of a dramatically interrupted wedding ceremony done in
reds and yellows, and announcing in large letters that Mr. Isaac
Simonson presented Miss Evangeline St. Clair in "Rent Asunder,"
occupied several yards of the boarding. As he reached it, the heel of
Tembarom's boot pressed, as it seemed to him, a red-hot coal on the
flesh. He had rubbed off the blister. He was obliged to stop a moment
again.

"Gee whizz!" he exclaimed through his teeth, "I shall have to take
my boot off and try to fix it."

To accomplish this he leaned against the boarding and Miss Evangeline
St. Clair being "Rent Asunder" in the midst of the wedding service.
He cautiously removed his boot, and finding a hole in his sock in the
place where the blister had rubbed off, he managed to protect the raw
spot by pulling the sock over it. Then he drew on his boot again.

"That'll be better," he said, with a long breath.

As he stood on his feet again he started involuntarily. This was not
because the blister had hurt him, but because he had heard behind him
a startling sound.

"What's that?" broke from him. "What's that?"

He turned and listened, feeling his heart give a quick thump. In the
darkness of the utterly empty street the thing was unnatural enough
to make any man jump. He had heard it between two gusts of wind, and
through another he heard it again - an uncanny, awful sobbing, broken